After arriving at the end of the path, Hai found himself under the Sakura tree at the island.
Looking ahead, Hai saw the group sitting on the ground and casually talking between themselves.
Looking down at Kryn, he patted her head.
"Kryn, about that, just take your time, okay?" He remarked while ruffling her hair one last time before hugging her and slowly floating towards the group.
Kryn only nodded and remained comfortable in his arms.
[Kryn, do you plan to tell him?] Laila flashed a message before Kryn's eyes, inquiring if her friend would share the traumatic experiences that she is forced to call "past".
'Huh. Hai. Trust. I. Trust. Too.' Kryn thought, resolute to someday tell him everything.
Meanwhile, Hai spared Kryn a brief glance before looking ahead.
He isn't in a hurry to know someone's secret.
Not of his close ones at least.
Right now, although Hai indeed doesn't know how to deal with kids, he can't deny that he is already somehow close to Kryn.
Her presence has helped Hai in his change. Although not so noticeable, having a kid, someone who is still growing, near him was something that made Hai rethink some of his behaviors that his lovers normally wouldn't mind.
Even though he isn't affected by it, Hai has smoked less and less due to Kryn's presence. And this has helped him in stopping this habit that he has of always searching for something to do when he faces a problem or situation that annoys him. This is already some progress in the change he wants to do, so he is grateful to Kryn.
*TAP*
Softly landing near Elena, Hai sat beside her while putting Kryn on his lap.
"Welcome back, young master." Elena said while handing him a teacup.
"Thanks, hon." Hai accepted the teacup before giving a quick kiss on her cheek.
Elena blushed at his unexpected action but she didn't comment on it and returned to drink her tea while trying to calm down her heart.
Hai noticed her reaction but choose to leave it be and took a sip of his tea.
'Delicious.' He thought while taking out a few candies from his storage ring and giving it to Kryn.
Kryn happily accepted the candies and started to munch on one with a small, happy smile.
"AH! Hai, you shouldn't give Kryn just candies. She needs something healthier." Hong Li-Wei who just now noticed Hai while he was giving Kryn candies, reprimanded him.
Hai stopped drinking his tea before looking at her.
"Candies are made with sugar, this sugar is made from sugar cane, a product from mother nature. Hence, candy is just another name to processed plant." Hai commented while nodding his head, as if he just said something wise and that should be written down for the future generations.
"…" This time, everyone looked at him with a face that asked if he was serious.
Hai made use of the girls' ability to hear his thoughts and used of what he observed until now to think of something that they should be able to hear.
From what he understood until now, the girls could hear his thoughts when it was concerning them; when he was worried about something; when he was having some darker thoughts, and sometimes when he was playing mind games.
This is what he has observed until now, but Hai is still running a few tests, so he can see if there are more situations in the future.
Chang Hua who heard his thoughts immediately understood that he was questioning her about how much he could trust the palace master and she inwardly sighed.
Although she isn't as old as Akame, she is experienced enough to know that even though Akame holds goodwill toward her, the palace master sometimes still subtly manipulates her in small things like conversations and such.
Hence, she can't say that Akame is trustable enough, but she also can't say that she is an enemy, since she actively protects everyone close or connected to her and provide them with the best.
Seeing Chang Hua's slight change in expression, Hai more or less understood where her dilemma is and decided to draw his own conclusions.
For now, he is going to be on friendly terms with Akame.
As far as friendly can go when dealing with a several-millennia-old monster.
While he thought about it, he didn't show anything on his face and kept casually talking with Hong Li-Wei over the fact that he was giving Kryn trash (candy).
From the corner of his eyes, he noticed that Bing Qing has been stealing some peeks at him ever since he arrived earlier.
Her previous troubled demeanor also seems to have almost vanished.
She seemed like a new woman after solving her problems.
Hai didn't call her out because of that and waited for her to move, as he can see that she now has something in mind that most likely involves him.
"And instead of meditating, you all are having a tea party. Tsk, tsk, tsk. Youngsters nowadays…" Akame suddenly remarked after she walked out of air and her disciple followed her.
"Palace master…" Chang Hua commented after hearing her remark.
"Nah, I'm just screwing with you." She waved her hand while her disciple seemed to be disturbed by her reaction.
This was something she never imagined her master saying.
Then, the silhouette put her eyes on Hai and immediately felt angry while remembering her master's words about how he was toying with her.
However, she learned her lesson and remained calm this time.
Hai noticed this and smiled at Akame.
"You have a good disciple. She learns quickly." He commented before taking another sip of his tea.
Akame just looked at him and nodded with a small smile.
However, Hai noticed that this small smile of hers had something else in it.
This sudden thought jolted all the girls and prompted them to look at him.
Akame also mirrored their move and kept a small smile on her face.
Hai with his cosmic-level thick skin pretended to be ignorant of their gazes while he maintained an innocent face and looked at Akame.
"What does the palace master have in mind?"
His question prompted her smile to stretch further, giving Hai all the certainty he needed to know that she was up to something that he probably won't like much.
"Why, training of course." She replied.
The girls looked confused at her but didn't think much of it.
All of them except for two.
Chang Hua and Jia immediately started sweating the moment they heard that the palace master was going to "train" them.
Hai noticed their and Akame's disciple's reaction and he got curious to see what was this kind of training that caused such reaction from those women.
"And you." Akame suddenly put her hand on Hai's shoulder and gripped it tightly.
*CRACK*
With his shoulder cracking, Hai's smile twitched but he kept looking into her eyes.
"You will be training directly under me." She stated.
(You don't think I didn't notice your little trick back then, did you?) Hai heard her voice inside his head and knew that the cat was out of the bag.
However, he also noticed that although a bit angry for being played like that, Akame seemed more curious to see what he would do with the results of her and her disciple's demonstration.
But Hai is sure that she was going to punish him anyway.
Also, he knows that there is something else as to why she suddenly chose to train them, but he doubts she will talk about it for now.
Shrugging his shoulders, Hai then put Kryn down and got up.
"So, when do we start?" His question was answered in the form of a wave of hand.
Akame waved her hand and both Hai and her disciple vanished from where they were.
Turning to the girls, Akame opened her arms.
"Well, I will be training you all for today. Little Hua and Jia are also included in this." Her words send a shiver down the spines of said two people.
Bing Qing and Stella looked at their reactions and got an ominous feeling.
Elena, Hong Li-Wei, and Kryn however, didn't care much and only waited for what they would do.
Seeing that no one tried to run this time, Akame nodded before rubbing her hands and closing her eyes.
"Hum… Okay, from what I can see, little Hua and Hai trained you well for the little time they had." She commented while observing the girls, mainly Hong Li-Wei and Kryn.
Those two had the most curious cores that even she hadn't seen.
"Alright, the pink-haired one, the child, and the maid come with me. Little Hua, you, Jia, the Cruenta-Anima's girl, and the fox will be sent to my training grounds." She especially looked at Stella and Bing Qing. "With the way you are now, you will waste your talent." She waved her hand and everyone vanished from where they were.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
"Okay, the first step we are going to go over here, is to see if you all have at least some basic knowledge about rankings and power levels." Akame said while standing up in a white room.
Before her, are Elena, Hong Li-Wei, and Kryn, all of them seated and looking at her.
"Quick question: as you all have already passed the previous levels, what is the "Fountain rank"?" Akame inquired while looking at them.
Hong Li-Wei and Kryn fell silent.
They didn't know what it was as Hai still hadn't explained it to them.
"The Fountain rank is the rank where someone truly becomes a mage." Elena answered after seeing that the other girls didn't know.
Akame nodded before asking back:
"And what "truly becomes a mage" means?"
"It is at this stage that someone truly becomes a mage because they start to produce mana. The "Fountain" rank receives this name because, in this stage, we create a "fountain", the first step to later on evolve this fountain in a nascent, then start forming a river and so on." As Elena explained, Akame kept nodding before adding something.
"Now, this brings us to a question that many don't even ponder about: why are the ranks of mages always related to water?" As her words fell, Elena silently pondered over it.
"Mana. Liquid. Alike." Unexpectedly, the one who answered her was none other than Kryn.
Akame nodded at her answer.
"The little phoenix is right. Mana as we know is an energy, more like particles. We absorb those particles inside us and refine them for us to use magic. However, when you reach a certain point, your refining capacity increases to such a point that you don't absorb and refines particles anymore, but instead, you seem to turn into a whirlpool as the mana you absorb will be at such quantities that when you refine it, it will be denser than previously, and this will make the mana seem more like a liquid than energy." After finishing her words, Akame snapped her fingers and an image appeared before the girls.
The image was a ball made of glass with glowing blue liquid sprouting inside it from seemingly nowhere.
"It's more or less like this." She added.
"Now, as for why I'm talking about this, it's more for you two." She pointed at Hong Li-Wei and Kryn. "You two are going to go through those phases in the near future, so it's good to already have an understanding about it. As for you," She then pointed at Elena. "You are a special case, so I can only train you so far. The rest will be up to you."
After finishing her words, Akame asked a few more basic questions and the girls tried their best to answer.
Those questions even managed to make Elena rethink some of her previous assumptions, so this little session of quiz and answers was good to all the girls.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
------------------------------------------------------------
A/N: Hello there, I hope you are having a wonderful day!
So, what do you guys think about this chapter? As I have read a reader's suggestion in the recent chapters, I will be explaining a few concepts and things that I haven't dwelled too deeply yet, mostly are cultivation-related things. Also, I should be showing some of the girls' and Hai's evolution soon, so comment about what you are thinking so far.
Comment what you thought about this chapter. If you liked it or not, I want to read your opinions and interact more with you guys.
Another thing: Please give your feedbacks. I want to know what you guys think, if there are things that could be better or if I could have done something in a simpler manner. If you could also leave a review, that would help me to understand what you think about the novel in general, so it would be really helpful.
Also, join our Discord community, there you can interact with other readers or with me in case you have questions or ideas about/ for the novel.
Discord server: https://discord.gg/NZV2EtdJY8
(The link is also on the novel's synopsis).
...….
Power Stones' rewards:
100 Power Stones = 1 bonus chapter;
200 power stones = 2 bonus chapters;
500 power stones = 3 bonus chapters.
...….
That is all for today, thank you all for reading! 🍷😎